Allied Health Professionals mandate for change is shaping up
NHS England’s Chief Allied Health Professions Officer thanks those who have contributed to this first stage of shaping the mandate for change and explains next steps.
It is now a full month since the launch of an important online workshop.
A platform to engage with Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) across England to co-create a vision of how, with collective action, our nation will be different if all AHPs were used effectively in the health, social and wider care system.
A total of 1,360 people posted ideas, comments and votes, discussing defining and realising the collective potential of AHPs to transform future care delivery in England. There was a surge of activity on the last day, Friday 6 May.
Over 10,000 ideas, comments and votes were generated:
Defining our potential:
How will England be different if all AHPs were genuinely used effectively?
84 Ideas | 294 Comments | 3029 Votes
Realising our potential – a national approach:
What do you think AHPs need to stop, start or do differently to ensure they are ‘used’ effectively to help transform health and wellbeing in England (please say why and how)?
204 Ideas | 613 Comments | 5016 Votes
Sharing and celebrating our success to date:
We know AHPs are already pioneering great examples of service delivery. Could you share your success stories and their evidence of impact?
81 Ideas | 90 Comments | 772 Votes
I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to offer their thoughts, insights and intelligence. I would also like to thank the professional bodies and AHP audiences who have helped promote the opportunity to their memberships.
The data is currently being analysed and the results will be presented at the Chief Allied Health Professions Officers Conference on the 23 June. Also on that date, the online platform will re-open and key stakeholders will be invited to take part. This will include service users, carers and the public.
If you have key contacts who you would like to be invited at this time then please contact Joanne Fillingham, Clinical Fellow to the CAHPO, jo.fillingham@nhs.net
The programme of work will complete in October 2016 when the publication will be launched.
- You can follow Suzanne on Twitter at: @SuzanneRastrick
Professor Suzanne Rastrick OBE
Suzanne qualified as an Occupational Therapist from Oxford. Suzanne was the first Allied Health Professional (AHP) to hold a substantive Director of Nursing post in both provider and commissioning organisations. She became the Chief Executive of a Primary Care Trust, where a particular highlight was having leadership responsibility for delivering health resilience and health ‘blue light’ services during the Olympic sailing events held in Dorset in 2012. She subsequently gained authorisation for a large Clinical Commissioning Group, before moving to her current post with NHS England. She was appointed as Chief Allied Health Professions Officer for England in September 2014.
In 2017 Suzanne launched the first AHP strategy for England which has been recognised as ground-breaking in policy development from its use of crowdsourcing. Building on this, Suzanne published the second AHP strategy – ‘AHPs Deliver’ in June 2022. This iteration had a greater emphasis on patient, public voice and specifically the inclusion of those who may be digitally excluded along with communities who may find it difficult to connect with traditional consultation methods. The result is a national strategy crowdsourced from diverse populations for people and communities AHPs serve.
For over three decades, Suzanne has held non-executive portfolios outside of the NHS, including audit committee chair roles, predominantly in the housing and charitable sector. Suzanne was recognised as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the Queen’s birthday honours list 2019. In 2023 Suzanne was awarded a Visiting Professor role at St George’s, University of London and at Oxford Brookes University.
Follow Suzanne on Twitter/X @SuzanneRastrick or Instagram @chief_ahp_officer_england